In the wild nature bees settle and live mainly in the hollows of trees. In ancient times territory of Ukraine was covered with forests which had a lot of bees and our ancestors hunted hollows for honey and wax. People hollowed oblong slots in trunk of trees artificially to invite bees families for settlement. Thus arose Tree Hollow Beekeeping.

In the southern regions of Ukraine people have learned to create beehive from twigs or straw called "sapetki". After creation "sapetki" were inhabited by bees families.

With the decrease of forests our ancestors began to cut round decks from trunk of trees and collected as beehives on their courtyard. So gradually became the transition from wild-hive beekeeping to apiary or bee-garden.

Such artificially arranged beehives for bees were non-dismountable beehives. Bees in non-dismountable beehives built up their cells and a person could get inside of the beehive just cut out bees honeycomb destroying internal structure of beehives.

From non-dismountable beehives received little honey, working with them was uncomfortable so some beekeepers were made attempts to improve beehives.

In 1814 in Ukraine a prominent beekeeper Petro Prokopovychcreated the first beehive with a detachable and movable frames. Beehive of beekeeper Petro Prokopovych was the world's first dismountable beehive. Besides beekeeper Petro Prokopovych came very close to the idea of creating of dismountable beehive - Swiss naturalist and beekeeper François Hubert who created and used to study of the life of bees so-called "book beehive". In 1851 American beekeeper Lorenz Langstroth patented "dismountable beehive". However the priority of invention of the first beehive frame was for beekeeper Petro Prokopovych.

The first hives beekeeper Petro Prokopovych gave the names: "Saint Petersburg", "Gogol", "Shevchenko", "Russia", "Venice", "Africa", "Saturn" and others.

The invention of the beehive frames and dismountable beehives by beekeeper Petro Prokopovych was a huge step forward paving the way for the development of the basic framework of modern beekeeping.

The methods of beekeeper Petro Prokopovych created the world's largest apiary at the time - the apiary numbered 10 000 bee families.

Prestige and glory of beekeeper Petro Prokopovych were huge and he made a decision to share the experience with others by creating the world's first School of Bee-Keeping. In 1828 beekeeper Petro Prokopovych created in Mitchenky village School of Bee-Keeping with the assistance of Moscow Society of Agriculture. Two years later the school was transferred to the neighboring Palchiky village and existed 53 years. In the school annually studied the beekeeping around 60-80 students from Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Germany and Poland. During its existence School of Bee-Keeping of beekeeper Petro Prokopovych released hundreds of beekeepers. In the school students got the best knowledge and practices of beekeeping.

Beekeeper Petro Prokopovych considered beekeeping as most profitable sector of the economy and proved it by his daily work - became quite rich person.

In 1975 in Baturin was created Monument to Beekeeper Petro Prokopovych that is possible to find near Kochubey House.

Interesting Fact

To collect 1 kg of honey bee should make 50 000 sorties. The bee flies about 300 000 km and collects honey from 10 million of flowers.

You could visit Ukraine Baturin Sights | Monument to Beekeeper Petro Prokopovych | Inventor of First Beehive Frames with
Ukraine Tour East Ring